Dr. A.P. Zhukov is an Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Advanced Polymers and Materials group, University of the Basque Country, Spain. He graduated in 1980 from the Physics-Chemistry Department of the Moscow Steel and Alloys Institute (now the National University of Science and Technology), earned his Ph.D. in 1988 from the Institute of Solid State Physics (Chernogolovka) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and completed his Doctor of Science (habilitation) at Moscow State “Lomonosov” University in 2010.
Dr. Zhukov has authored over 600 peer-reviewed publications, with a citation count exceeding 9,000 and an H-index of 51 (as of October 12, 2020). He has edited several conference proceedings and organized numerous international scientific events, including the Donostia International Conference on Nanoscaled Magnetism (DICNMA), ISMANAM 2017, and others. He has also chaired sessions at major conferences such as MMM and Intermag, and has been invited to deliver plenary and keynote lectures worldwide.
He serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Magnetics Letters and the International Journal on Smart Sensing and Intelligent Systems, and is a member of several editorial boards and international scientific committees.
Dr. Zhukov has edited two books: Novel Functional Magnetic Materials and High Performance Soft Magnetic Materials; authored two monographs on magnetic microwires and sensors; and contributed chapters to key scientific handbooks, including the Handbook of Magnetic Materials edited by Prof. K. Buschow.
Athanassia Athanassiou is a Principal Investigator at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Genoa, Italy), leading the Smart Materials Group. She holds a degree in Physics from the University of Ioannina in Greece (1996), an MSc in Laser Photonics from the University of Manchester, UK (1997), and a Ph.D. in Physics sponsored by British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) from Salford University in Manchester, UK (2000). From 2000, she worked as a Post-doc at the Foundation for Research and Technology in Crete, becoming a Collaborating Researcher from 2003 to 2005. Simultaneously, from 2003 to 2005, she served as Academic Staff at the Technical University of Crete, School of Applied Technology.
In January 2006, she joined the National Nanotechnology Lab, CNR-Istituto di Nanoscienze, Lecce, Italy, as a Researcher. In January 2011, she transitioned to the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, IIT @ UniLe, Lecce, establishing the Smart Materials group. The group relocated to the central research laboratories of IIT in Genoa in September 2012. By September 2014, she obtained tenure and has since led the Smart Materials group—an interdisciplinary team of about 40 researchers focused on developing sustainable materials and technologies for environmental and human health benefits.
In 2023, she assumed the role of Associate Director of IIT for the Nanomaterials Domain. Since 2022, she has held the position of President of the Scientific Committee of the Competence Centre for Economic, Ecological, and Social Sustainability at the University of Bolzano. She is the founder and Scientific Advisor of the startup Alkivio (founded in 2022), specializing in circular economy innovation, and developing biocomposites from paper residues for various markets, from construction to houseware and electronics.
She has authored over 500 articles in scientific journals, contributed to various chapters in scientific books, and served as a scientific editor. Additionally, she possesses a robust patent portfolio. Over the last seven years, her group has participated in six H2020 EU projects, four institutional projects, and thirty commercial projects with national and international companies. Moreover, she has established two joint labs with industrial partners.
Prof. Paolo Lugli is a renowned expert in nanoelectronics, printed electronics, and molecular electronics, with over 800 scientific publications to his name. After completing his studies in physics at the University of Modena, he earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University, USA. His academic career includes research and teaching roles at the Universities of Colorado, Modena, and Rome “Tor Vergata.” In 2002, he was appointed Chair of Nanoelectronics at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where he taught for twelve years and served as Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, overseeing more than 3,500 students and 700 doctoral candidates. In 2017, he joined the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano as Professor and later served as Rector, bringing with him extensive leadership experience and a strong commitment to advancing key fields such as bioengineering and nanotechnology. Prof. Lugli is an IEEE Fellow and a member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), actively contributing to the scientific and academic communities through international collaborations, conference leadership, and cross-disciplinary innovation.
Jérôme Cornil received a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Mons-Hainaut (Belgium) in 1996 under the supervision of Jean-Luc Brédas. After postdoctoral stays at the University of California at Santa Barbara (with A.J. Heeger) and at MIT Boston (with R.S. Silbey), he became a senior researcher of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS) in 2000. His research interests mostly deal with the design of organic semiconductors for organic-based opto-electronic devices and molecular-based devices and the understanding of the key electronic processes in the bulk of organic layers and at interfaces in such devices. He is (co)author of over 225 chapter books and papers in international peer-reviewed journals.
Thomas J. Webster’s (H index: 121; Google Scholar) degrees are in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1995; USA) and in biomedical engineering from RPI (Ph.D., 2000; USA). He has served as a professor at Purdue (2000-2005), Brown (2005-2012), and Northeastern (2012-2021; serving as Chemical Engineering Department Chair from 2012 - 2019) Universities and has formed over a dozen companies who have numerous FDA approved medical products currently improving human health in over 20,000 patients. He is currently helping those companies and serves as a professor at Brown University, Saveetha University, Vellore Institute of Technology, UFPI, and others. Dr. Webster has numerous awards including: 2020, World Top 2% Scientist by Citations (PLOS); 2020, SCOPUS Highly Cited Research (Top 1% Materials Science and Mixed Fields); 2021, Clarivate Top 0.1% Most Influential Researchers (Pharmacology and Toxicology); 2022, Best Materials Science Scientist by Citations (Research.com); and is a fellow of over 8 societies. Prof. Webster is a former President of the U.S. Society For Biomaterials and has over 1,350 publications to his credit with over 55,000 citations. He was recently nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Professor Riccarda Antiochia received an MSc degree in Chemistry with honors in 1992 and an MSc degree in Pharmacy with honors in 2009, both at the Sapienza University of Rome. In 1994 she received a Diploma of Imperial College from Imperial College, London, and in 1996 received a PhD in Chemical Sciences from the Sapienza University of Rome. In 2018 she was awarded the national scientific qualification as Full Professor for the scientific sector CHIM/01, Analytical Chemistry. She is a Member of the Steering Committee of CNIS, Research Center for Biotechnology, applied to Engineering of the Sapienza University of Rome from 2011, and a Member of the PNIEC-PNRR Technical Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Energetic Security (MASE) for the environmental impact assessment of projects from Integrates National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) and National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) since April 2022. She is author of more than110 papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals, 3 book chapters and 1 mono- graph.
Her scientific activity is focused on the fields of biotechnology, nanotechnology and analytical chemistry. Her main area of research is the design and development of electrochemical (bio) sensors for clinical applications. More recently, she has been involved in the characterization of new nanostructured materials for electrode modification in second- and third-generation electro- chemical biosensors, biofuel cells and microneedle-based bio- sensor development.
Christophe Caucheteur is head of the Advanced Photonic Sensors ERC Unit at the University of Mons in Belgium. He holds a master degree in electrical engineering (2003) and PhD degree in applied sciences (2007) from the Faculté Polytechnique de Mons. He was recipient of an ERC Starting grant from 2011 to 2016. His research activities focus on the study and development of fiber Bragg grating sensors, especially plasmonic biosensors based on gold-coated tilted fiber Bragg gratings. He is regularly involved in the organization of international events, including the co-chairing of EWOFS (European Workshop on Optical fibre Sensors) in 2023 and the technical program co-chairing of BGPP (Bragg Gratings, Photosensitivity and Poling in optical materials and waveguides) in 2024. He is the co-founder of the spin-off company B-SENS (www.b-sens.be).
Lucia Gemma Delogu, Ph.D., is the head of the ImmuneNano-Lab at the Department of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Padua (UNIPD Padua, Italy) www.delogulab.eu. After acquiring her experience in Immunology and Material Science at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, USA) and at Sanford-Burnham Institute (San Diego, USA), she served as Assistant Professor at the University of Sassari (Italy) and as Visiting Professor at the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD; Dresden, Germany).
Dr. Delogu has been the Scientific Coordinator of two interdisciplinary EU projects, under HORIZON2020, including a RISE project on nanomedicine and immune interactions of nanomaterials, involving more than 10 leading Institutions and high-profile international scientists on nanotechnology and nanomedicine. In this field, she has received several awards, including the “Marie S. Curie Individual Fellow” at TUD under HORIZON2020 from the European Commission, the “200 Young Best Talents of Italy 2011” from the Italian Ministry of Youth, and “Bedside to Bench & Back Award” from the National Institutes of Health, USA. Since 2020, Dr. Delogu is in charge of the Italian chapter and a member of the road map working group of the Advanced Material Global Pandemic & Future Preparedness Taskforce (AMPT) www.amptnetwork.com/. She introduced the “NanoImmunity-by-design” concept, for the design of nanomaterials based not solely on their physicochemical characteristics but also on their immunomodulatory characteristics.
She pioneered the use of systems immunology approach by high-dimensional single-cell strategies in the context of nanomaterial applications. Her research focuses on the biological interactions of nanomaterials and nanoparticles, with a particular focus on their immunomodulation properties, biomedical applications and toxicological profile.
Yurii K. Gun’ko received his MSc and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from Moscow State University in 1987 and 1990, respectively. He then worked as a lecturer at the Belarus Institute of Technology, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sussex (UK), and the Universities of Göttingen and Magdeburg (Germany). In 1999, he was appointed as a Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry at Trinity College Dublin, later promoted to Associate Professor, and finally appointed to the 1922 Chair in 2014. His main research interests and activities are in the areas of quantum dots, chiral nanomaterials, plasmonic and magnetic nanostructures for potential biomedical applications. Professor Gun'ko has over 268 peer reviewed journal publications, 10 peer reviewed conference proceedings and written one book and 11 book chapters to date.
Keynote Tak title: Engineering Chirality at the Nanoscale for Bio-Selective Interactions
Francesca Granucci obtained the PhD in Pharmacology and toxicology in 1996. She then performed the Post doc at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute – Boston. From 1997 to 2001 she worked as researcher at the Italian National Research in Milan and from 2001 to 2006 she worked as researcher at the University of Milano-Bicocca. In 2006 she obtained a position as Associate Professor and in 2016 as Full Professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca. She has pioneered systems biology approaches to study complex dynamic processes, such as host-pathogen interactions, the process of dendritic cell maturation and the role of dendritic cells in activating and controlling NK cell functions. More recently she focused her research activity on signalling events downstream of CD14/TLR4 within cells of the mammalian innate immune system and she identified some of the key functions played by the NFATc family of transcription factors activated in dendritic cells in response to PRR agonists.
Dr Qi Zhang has been an Ikerbasque research professor in BCMaterials since 2020. Before that, he worked in Cranfield University, UK as a research fellow in 1996, a senior research fellow in 1998, a senior lecturer in 2007. He was a full professor in Wuhan University of Technology, China since 2012. He is a fellow and charted scientist of Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining. He is acting as a chief scientist in three international companies. Zhang’s research work is focused on the areas of functional materials for energy storage and electrocaloric cooling, as well as on lithium batteries and on coatings for surface engineering. He has published more than 200 peer reviewed papers and 5 chapters in books, with a total citation of > 6500 and H-factor of 40. Some of his publications appeared in journals with high impact factors, such as, Science, Energy & Environ. Sci., Mater. Sci. and Eng. R: Report, Adv. Funct. Mater., Nano Energy and Nano Lett., among others. In addition, he co-edited the book entitled Electrocaloric Cooling (EC). He received Brian Mercer Feasibility Award, 2009, The Royal Society, UK.
K. Jimmy Hsia is President Chair Professor in Mechanical Engineering in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He became Founding Dean of Graduate College at NTU in 2018, and started the new role as Vice President (Alumni & International Affairs) since January 2020. He received his B.S. degree from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, his M.S. degree from Beijing University of Aeronautics, China, and his Ph.D. from MIT. Hsia has broad research interests in interdisciplinary fields between engineering and biology. His research focuses in the area of applied mechanics including, but not limited to, material failure and fracture, soft materials and soft robotics, micro- and nanoscale mechanical behaviour of materials and micro-nano-technologies, mechanics of living cells and biological systems, biomedical device development and applications. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in top journals such as Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Nano Letters, ACS Nano, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, etc. He has co-authored 2 books published by Springer. He has been elected Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and Fellow of American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE). He was recipient of US National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Initiation Award, Max-Planck Society Scholarship, and Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship. Before joining NTU, Hsia was Vice Provost for International Programs and Strategy, and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, and before then was W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where he also served as Associate Dean of Graduate College and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research for New Initiatives. From 2005-2007, Hsia was Founding Director of Nano and Bio Mechanics Program at NSF. He is Founding co-Editor-in-Chief of an Elsevier journal, Extreme Mechanics Letters.
Giuseppe Cavallaro is Associate Professor in “Physical Chemistry” at University of Palermo, Department of Physics and Chemistry “Emilio Segrè”.
In 2014, Prof. Cavallaro obtained his PhD in Chemistry at University of Palermo. Then, he was a Research Associate at the Institute of Micromanifacturing, Lousiana Tech University, (USA) and Institut fur Chemie, Technische Universitat Berlin (Germany) within a DAAD project. In 2023, Giuseppe Cavallaro obtained the National Scientific Habilitation for Full Professorship in Physical Chemistry.
He is Editor of the book “Clay nanoparticles: properties and applications - 1st Edition” (https://doi.org/10.1016/C2018-0-00293-5)” (Publisher: Elsevier) published in February 2020. He is Associate Editor of “Thermal Advances” (Elsevier) and member of the Editorial Board of “Applied Clay Science” (Elsevier).
He is author of 6 book chapters and more than 170 scientific articles in peer review journals that received more than 7600 citations. Based on Scopus website, his current H-index is 54. He was included in the list of “World’s Top 2% Scientist” (from 2021 to 2024) published by Stanford University.
He is inventor of 3 patents related to the use of clay based colloids (gels and dispersions) for conservation of Cultural Heritage and cosmetic applications.
His research activities focus on nanoclays and polymer/nanoparticle interactions. His studies aim to develop novel sustainable materials useful for biomedicine, cosmetics and technological applications, such as catalysis, remediation and protection of artworks.
Olivier Soppera is CNRS Research Director at the Institut de Science de Matériaux de Mulhouse, a joint research unit of the CNRS and the Université de Haute-Alsace, located in Mulhouse, north-east France.
Olivier Soppera’s research focuses on the use of photochemical pathways to prepare structured functional materials on a variety of scales, from nanotechnology to the macroscopic. The spatial control of light enables these materials to be structured in the form of thin films, 2D or 3D structures, for applications in a wide range of fields including optics, photonics, electronics and sensors.
Responding to the challenges of the energy transition by proposing materials and processes that are more respectful of the environment, and to the challenges of health with sensors for biomedical applications and biocompatible materials are central to his research work.
Professor Elena Cattaneo is Director of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Pharmacology of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the Department of Pharmacological Sciences, as well as a co-founder and first appointed Director of UniStem, the Centre for Stem Cell Research of the University of Milano. The main research theme of her lab is neural stem cells, and the molecular pathophysiology of Huntington’s Disease.
Funders of Prof Cattaneo's lab include the Huntington's Disease Society of America (H.D.S.A.), Hereditary Disease Foundation,High Q Foundation, the European Union (through EuroStemCell, NeuroStemcell, ESTOOLS, NeuroNE, STEM-HD and Stem-stroke projects), Fondazione Cariplo, and Telethon Italy.
Prof Cattaneo is a Coalition Investigator of the Huntington's Disease Society of America (H.D.S.A.), and a member of the Board of Directors of several European consortia (including EuroStemCell and NeuroNE). She acts as a reviewer for several journals (including Science, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Genetics, and Journal of Neuroscience) and international funding agencies, and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Hereditary Disease Foundation and of the Euro-HD Network.
Prof Cattaneo's studies on neural stem cells and Huntington's disease saw her awarded the “Le Scienze” Price for Medicine and a Gold Medal from the President of the Italian Republic in 2001. In 2005 she was awarded the Marisa Bellisario and Chiara D’Onofrio prizes, in 2006 was nominated Cavaliere Ufficiale (Knight) of the Italian Republic, and in 2013 was appointed senator for life by Italy's president, Giorgio Napolitano. She was also named Stem Cell Person of the Year in 2013 by Paul Knoepfler and the readers of his blog, and awarded the ISSCR Public Service Award in 2014, with Paolo Bianco and Michele De Luca, for "their recent involvement in public debate and policy-making in Italy, championing rigorous scientific and medical standards and stringent regulatory oversight in the introduction of new stem cell treatments into the clinic."
Prof Cattaneo has published 105 papers in peer-reviewed journals, has given more than 200 invited lectures, and is very active in organizing professional development and outreach events - for both the scientific community and lay public.
Larysa studied Physics at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine) from 1999 to 2005, where she got her Master of Science degree. For her PhD she worked in the area of soft condensed matter systems with colloidal particles at the University of Konstanz (Germany), with Prof. Paul Leiderer. In January 2009, she joined the group of Prof. Jerome Bibette at the Ecole superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris as a Post Doc. There she was working on the development of an innovative millifluidic platform for microbiological assays.
She moved to Dresden in 2011, where she worked at the integration of miniaturized sensors into microfluidic lab-on-a-chip systems first, in the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (director Prof. Oliver Schmidt), and then at the TU Dresden in the group of Prof. Gianaurelio Cuniberti.
Her research activities include multiple aspects in materials science and nanoelectronics, e.g. novel artificially designed micro-machines and ultra-sensitive nanosensors integrated in microfluidic systems. In 2020 she became an independent group leader at the Helmholtz Center HZDR.
Dr. Carlo Massaroni received his BSc (2010) and MSc (2012) in Biomedical Engineering and Ph.D. in Bioengineering (2017) from Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma (UCBM). Currently, he is Assistant Professor at UCBM. His research interests are focused on the design, development, and tests of sensors, measuring systems and devices for mechanical and thermal measurements, with particular emphasis on the design of wearable and unobtrusive systems for the measurement of vital parameters and joint motion. Among others, he is principal investigator in ongoing national projects on the development of wearable technologies for non-invasive measurement in the medical, occupational and sports fields and on design of unobtrusive or minimally-invasive measuring systems based on fiber optics for medical and industrial applications . He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology. He is currently the Chair of the “Wearable Sensors” TC of the IEEE Sensors Italy Chapter and Associate Member of the "Wearable Biomedical Sensors & Systems" TC of the IEEE EMB.
Dr. Panseri has been trained on different topics in internationally renowned institutes such as University of Milano Bicocca and San Raffaele Scientific Institute (Stem Cell Research Institute) in Italy, Brain Research Institute of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) and University of Zurich, Columbia University (Dep. of Biomedical Engineering, New York). Her research activity has always been characterized by a multi and interdisciplinary approach, at the interfaces between nanotechnology and regenerative medicine. Her interests are focused on novel approaches in tissue engineering and nanomedicine, and she had acquired expertise in 3D stem cell culture with several nanobiomaterials and in vivo regenerative medicine. She was awarded the SIBS award for “Best PhD Thesis of 2009 in Biological Field”.
In 2010 she moved to the Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics, National Research Council of Italy. She set up the first Cell/Biomaterial Interaction Lab of the Institute that she still manages. In the last years she has been involved as key personnel in several Eu projects (SCREENED - H2020â€SC1â€BHC-27â€2018â€825745. BioTechMA †2014â€1â€IT02â€KA203â€003482. MAGISTER †NMP3â€LAâ€2008â€214685. OPHIS †FP7â€NMPâ€2009â€SMALLâ€3â€246373. SMILEY †NMP4â€SLâ€2012â€310637).
She is co-inventor of 2 patents, she has been trained in BioEntrepreneurship (Advanced short course on BioBusiness - Swiss University in Lugano; Business Planning Bootcamp - EIT RawMaterials, Anacapri), and in 2013 she was awarded “Best Research Ideas” for the Market Competition (Second Prize): “Magnetic Bioactive and Biodegradable Microâ€Nano beads” at MiMe International Conference. Author of more than 60 papers published in international peerâ€reviewed journals, 12 book chapters, Hâ€index 21, coâ€editor of the eBook 'Biomimetic approaches for tissue healing'. Guest Editor of several Special Issues in peerâ€reviewed journals.
Petr Šittner is the head of the Department of Functional Materials at Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic since 2009 and the head of Division of Condensed Matter Physics since 2016. He graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics Charles University in 1995, received his Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics in 1991 from Czech Academy of Sciences, worked for 5 years as Research Associate at Faculty of Engineering Mie University in Japan and, since 2000 he has been working as senior scientist at the Institute of Physics of the CAS (2012-16 as vice director).
Petr Šittner has been active in the research of martensitic transformations, shape memory alloys and smart engineering materials and composites for over 30 years, published over 250 scientific articles in impacted scientific journals, 5 patents, organized two major international conferences in the SMA field ESOMAT 2009 and SMST 2013 in Prague, served as member of the Board of directors of the SMST ASM International society and currently serves as associate editor of the journal Shape Memory and Superelasticity.
His current research in the field of martensitic transformations focuses on the investigation of deformation processes responsible activated during functional thermomechanical behavior of NiTi based shape memory alloys using thermomechanical testing supported by application of various in-situ methods such as in-situ synchrotron and neutron diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, DIC and EBSD methods in SEM [1-5].
Petr Šittner has been actively involved in designing and building engineering diffractometer BEER at European spallation source currently under construction in Lund Sweden. He serves as a representative of the Czech Republic in the In Kind Review Committee of ESS.